Gesture-based user interface employing video camera

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for providing a free-space gesture-based user interface for a computer workstation and desktop software applications are disclosed. In one implementation, the system includes a video camera to generate real-time video signals responsive to a user gesture as observed by the video camera, and a processor to generate control signals responsive to the real-time video signals responsive to the user gesture observed by the video camera. The control signals are used to control a desktop software application executing on the computer workstation, such that at least one aspect of the desktop software application is responsive to the user gesture observed by the video camera.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/761,978, filed Jun. 12, 2007, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/812,400, filed Mar. 19, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,786,370, issued Aug. 31, 2010, which is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/313,533, filed May 15, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,610,917, issued Aug. 26, 2003, which claims benefit of priority of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/085,713, filed May 15, 1998.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a control system, and in particular, to a tactile input controller for controlling an associated system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Touchpad user interfaces for controlling external systems such as computers, machinery, and process environments via at least three independent control signals. The touchpad may be operated by hand, other parts of the body, or inanimate objects. Such an interface affords a wide range of uses in computer applications, machine and process control, and assistance to the disabled. In one embodiment simple contact position-sensing touchpads, producing control signals responsive to a contact region, are enhanced to provide several independent control signals. Enhancements may include velocity sensors, pressure sensors, and electronic configurations measuring contact region widths. Touch-screens positioned over visual displays may be adapted. According to other aspects pressure-sensor array touchpads are combined with image processing to responsively calculate parameters from contact regions. Six independent control parameters can be derived from each region of contact. These may be easily manipulated by a user. In one implementation, smaller pressure-sensor arrays are combined with data acquisition and processing into a chip that can be tiled in an array.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon consideration of the following description of preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an example of how two independent contact points can be independently discerned, or the dimensional-width of a single contact point can be discerned, for a resistance null/contact controller with a single conductive contact plate or wire and one or more resistive elements whose resistance per unit length is a fixed constant through each resistive element;

FIG. 2 shows how a pressure-sensor array touch-pad can be combined with image processing to assign parameterized interpretations to measured pressure gradients and output those parameters as control signals;

FIG. 3 illustrates the positioning and networking of pressure sensing and processing “mini-array” chips in larger contiguous structures;

FIG. 4 illustrates the pressure profiles for a number of example hand contacts with a pressure-sensor array;

FIG. 5 illustrates how six degrees of freedom can be recovered from the contact of a single finger; and

FIG. 6 illustrates examples of single, double, and quadruple touch-pad instruments with pads of various sizes and supplemental instrument elements.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example video camera linked to a computer workstation system that can be used to perform various aspects of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

Described herein are two kinds of novel touch-pads. Null/contact touchpads are contact-position sensing devices that normally are in a null state unless touched and produce a control signal when touched whose signal value corresponds to typically one unique position on the touch-pad. A first enhancement is the addition of velocity and/or pressure sensing. A second enhancement is the ability to either discern each dimensional-width of a single contact area or, alternatively, independently discern two independent contact points in certain types of null/contact controllers. A third possible enhancement is that of employing a touch-screen instance of null/contact touch pad and positioning it over a video display.

The invention also provides for a pressure-sensor array touch-pad. A pressure-sensor array touch-pad of appropriate sensitivity range, appropriate “pixel” resolution, and appropriate physical size is capable of measuring pressure gradients of many parts of the human hand or foot simultaneously. A pressure-sensor array touch-pad can be combined with image processing to assign parameterized interpretations to measured pressure gradients and output those parameters as control signals. The pressure-sensor “pixels” of a pressure-sensor array are interfaced to a data acquisition stage; the data acquisition state looks for sensor pixel pressure measurement values that exceed a low-level noise-rejection/deformity-reject threshold; contiguous regions of sufficiently high pressure values are defined; the full collection of region boundaries are subjected to classification tests; various parameters are derived from each independent region; and these parameters are assigned to the role of specific control signals which are then output to a signal routing, processing, and synthesis entity.

It is possible to derive a very large number of independent control parameters which are easily manipulated by the operating user. For example, six degrees of freedom can be recovered from the contact of a single finger. A whole hand posture can yield 17 instantaneously and simultaneously measurable parameters which are independently adjustable per hand. The recognized existence and/or derived parameters from postures and gestures may be assigned to specific outgoing control signal formats and ranges. The hand is used throughout as an example, but it is understood that the foot or even other body regions, animal regions, objects, or physical phenomena can replace the role of the hand.

It will be evident to one of ordinary skill in the art that it is advantageous to have large numbers of instantaneously and simultaneously measurable parameters which are independently adjustable. For instance, a symbol in a 2-D CAD drawing can be richly interactively selected and installed or edited in moments as opposed to tens to hundreds of seconds as is required by mouse manipulation of parameters one or two at a time and the necessary mode-changes needed to change the mouse action interpretation. As a result, said touch-pad has applications in computer workstation control, general real-time machine control, computer data entry, and computer simulation environments.

Various hardware implementations are possible. A particularly advantageous implementation would be to implement a small pressure-sensor array together with data acquisition and a small processor into a single chip package that can be laid as tiles in a larger array.

Null/Contact Touch-Pads

Distinguished from panel controls and sensors are what will be termed null/contact touch-pads. This is a class of contact-position sensing devices that normally are in a null state unless touched and produce a control signal when touched whose signal value corresponds to typically one unique position on the touch-pad. Internal position sensing mechanisms may be resistive, capacitive, optical, standing wave, etc. Examples of these devices include one-dimensional-sensing ribbon controllers found on early music synthesizers, two-dimensional-sensing pads such as the early Kawala pad and more modern mini-pads found on some lap-top computers, and two-dimensional-sensing see-through touch-screens often employed in public computer kiosks.

The null condition, when the pad is untouched, requires and/or provides the opportunity for special handling. Some example ways to handle the untouched condition include:

sample-hold (hold values issued last time sensor was touched, as does a joystick)

bias 1107 a, 1107 b (issue maximal-range value, minimal-range value, mid-range value, or other value)

touch-detect on another channel (i.e., a separate out-of-band “gate” channel).

Additional enhancements can be added to the adaptation of null/contact touch-pad controllers as instrument elements. A first enhancement is the addition of velocity and/or pressure sensing. This can be done via global impact and/or pressure-sensors. An extreme of this is implementation of the null/contact touch-pad controller as a pressure-sensor array; this special case and its many possibilities are described later.

A second enhancement is the ability to either discern each dimensional-width of a single contact area or, alternatively, independently discern two independent contact points in certain types of null/contact controllers. FIG. 1 shows an example of how two independent contact points can be independently discerned, or the dimensional-width of a single contact point can be discerned, for a resistance null/contact controller with a single conductive contact plate (as with the Kawala pad product) or wire (as in a some types of ribbon controller products) and one or more resistive elements 1100 whose resistance per unit length is a fixed constant through each resistive element. It is understood that a one-dimensional null/contact touch-pad typically has one such resistive element while a two-dimensional null/contact touch-pad typically has two such resistive elements that operate independently in each direction.

Referring to FIG. 1, a constant current source 1101 can be applied to the resistive element as a whole 1102 a-1102 b, developing a fixed voltage across the entire resistive element 1100. When any portion of the resistive element is contacted by either a non-trivial contiguous width and/or multiple points of contact 1104-1105, part of the resistive element is shorted out 1100 a, thus reducing the overall width-to-end resistance of the resistance element. Because of the constant current source 1101, the voltage developed across the entire resistive element 1102 a-1102 b drops by an amount equal to the portion of the resistance that is shorted out.

The value of the voltage drop then equals a value in proportion to the distance separating the extremes of the wide and/or multiple contact points 1104-1105. By subtracting 1111, 1112, 1113 the actual voltage across the entire resistive element from the value this voltage is normally 1110, a control voltage proportional to distance separating the extremes of the wide and/or multiple contact points 1104-1105 is generated. Simultaneously, the voltage difference between that of the contact plate/wire 1103 and that of the end of the resistive element closest to an external contact point 1102 a or 1102 b is still proportional to the distance from said end to said external contact point, Using at most simple op-amp summing and/or differential amplifiers 1108 a, 1108 b, 1112, a number of potential control voltages can be derived; for example one or more of these continuously-valued signals:

value of distance difference between external contact points (or “width”; as described above via constant current source, nominal reference voltage, and differential amplifier 1113

center of a non-trivial-width region (obtained by simple averaging, i.e., sum with gain of ½)

value of distance difference 1109 a between one end of the resistive element and the closest external contact point (simple differential amplifier)

value of distance difference between the other end of the resistive element and the other external contact point (sum above voltage with “width” voltage with appropriate sign) 1109 b.

Further, through use of simple threshold comparators, specific thresholds of shorted resistive element can be deemed to be, for example, any of a single point contact, a recognized contact region width, two points of contact, etc., producing corresponding discrete-valued control signals. The detection of a width can be treated as a contact event for a second parameter analogous to the single contact detection event described at the beginning. Some example usages of these various continuous and discrete signals are:

existence of widths or multiple contact points may be used to trigger events or timbre changes

degree of widths may be used to control degrees of modulation or timbre changes

independent measurement of each external contact point from the same end of the resistive element can be used to independently control two parameters. In the simplest form, one parameter is always larger than another; in more complex implementations, the trajectories of each contact point can be tracked (using a differentiator and controlled parameter assignment switch); as long as they never simultaneously touch, either parameter can vary and be larger or smaller than the other.

It is understood that analogous approaches may be applied to other null/contact touchpad technologies such as capacitive or optical.

A third possible enhancement is that of employing a touch-screen instance of null/contact touch-pad and positioning it over a video display. The video display could for example provide dynamically assigned labels, abstract spatial cues, spatial gradients, line-of-site cues for fixed or motor-controlled lighting, etc. which would be valuable for use in conjunction with the adapted null/contact touch-pad controller.

These various methods of adapted null/contact touch-pad elements can be used stand-alone or arranged in arrays. In addition, they can be used as a component or addendum to instruments featuring other types of instrument elements.

Pressure-Sensor Array Touch-Pads

The invention provides for use of a pressure-sensor array arranged as a touch-pad together with associated image processing. As with the null/contact controller, these pressure-sensor array touch-pads may be used stand-alone or organized into an array of such pads.

It is noted that the inventor's original vision of the below described pressure-sensor array touch-pad was for applications not only in music but also for computer data entry, computer simulation environments, and real-time machine control, applications to which the below described pressure-sensor array touch-pad clearly can also apply.

A pressure-sensor array touch-pad of appropriate sensitivity range, appropriate “pixel” resolution, and appropriate physical size is capable of measuring pressure gradients of many parts of the flexibly-rich human hand or foot simultaneously. FIG. 2 shows how a pressure-sensor array touch-pad can be combined with image processing to assign parameterized interpretations to measured pressure gradients and output those parameters as control signals.

The pressure-sensor “pixels” of a pressure-sensor array touch-pad 1300 are interfaced to a data acquisition stage 1301. The interfacing method may be fully parallel but in practice may be advantageously scanned at a sufficiently high rate to give good dynamic response to rapidly changing human touch gestures. To avoid the need for a buffer amplifier for each pressure-sensor pixel, electrical design may carefully balance parasitic capacitance of the scanned array with the electrical characteristics of the sensors and the scan rates; electrical scanning frequencies can be reduced by partitioning the entire array into distinct parts that are scanned in parallel so as to increase the tolerance for address settling times and other limiting processes.

Alternatively, the pressure-sensor array 1300 may be fabricated in such a way that buffer amplifier arrays can be inexpensively attached to the sensor array 1300, or the sensors may be such that each contains its own buffer amplifier; under these conditions, design restrictions on scanning can be relaxed and operate at higher speeds. Although the pressure-sensors may be likely analog in nature, a further enhancement would be to use digital-output pressure-sensor elements or sub-arrays.

The data acquisition stage 1301 looks for sensor pixel pressure measurement values that exceed a low-level noise-rejection/deformity-rejection threshold. The sufficiently high pressure value of each such sensor pixel is noted along with the relative physical location of that pixel (known via the pixel address). This noted information may be stored “raw” for later processing and/or may be subjected to simple boundary tests and then folded into appropriate running calculations as will be described below. In general, the pressure values and addresses of sufficiently high pressure value pixels are presented to a sequence of processing functions which may be performed on the noted information:

contiguous regions of sufficiently high pressure values are defined (a number of simple run-time adjacency tests can be used; many are known—see for example [Ronse; Viberg; Shaperio; Hara])

the full collection of region boundaries are subjected to classification tests; in cases a given contiguous region may be split into a plurality of tangent or co-bordered independently recognized regions

various parameters are derived from each independent region, for example geometric center, center of pressure, average pressure, total size, angle-of-rotation-from-reference for non-round regions, second-order and higher-order geometric moments, second-order and higher-order pressure moments, etc.

assignment of these parameters to the role of specific control signals (note events, control parameters, etc.) which are then output to a signal routing, processing, and synthesis entity; for example, this may be done in the form of MIDI messages.

Because of the number of processes involved in such a pipeline, it is advantageous to follow a data acquisition stage 1301 with one or more additional processing stages 1303, 1305, 1309, and 1311. Of the four example processing functions just listed, the first three fall in the character of image processing. It is also possible to do a considerable amount of the image processing steps actually within the data acquisition step, namely any of simple adjacency tests and folding selected address and pressure measurement information into running sums or other running pre-calculations later used to derive aforementioned parameters. The latter method can be greatly advantageous as it can significantly collapse the amount of data to be stored.

Regardless of whether portions of the image processing are done within or beyond the data acquisition stage, there are various hardware implementations possible. One hardware approach would involve very simple front-end scanned data acquisition hardware and a single high-throughput microprocessor/signal-processor chip. Alternatively, an expanded data acquisition stage may be implemented in high-performance dedicated function hardware and this would be connected to a lower performance processor chip. A third, particularly advantageous implementation would be to implement a small pressure-sensor array together with data acquisition and a small processor into a single low-profile chip package that can be laid as tiles in a nearly seamless larger array. In such an implementation all image processing could in fact be done via straightforward partitions into message-passing distributed algorithms.

One or more individual chips could direct output parameter streams to an output processor which would organize and/or assign parameters to output control channels, perhaps in a programmable manner under selectable stored program control. A tiled macro array of such “sensor mini-array” chips could be networked by a tapped passive bus, one- or two-dimensional mode active bus daisy-chain, a potentially expandable star-wired centralized message passing chip or subsystem, or other means.

Creating a large surface from such “tile chips” will aid in the serviceability of the surface. Since these chips can be used as tiles to build a variety of shapes, it is therefore possible to leverage a significant manufacturing economy-of-scale so as to minimize cost and justify more extensive feature development. Advanced seating and connector technologies, as used in lap-tops and other high-performance miniature consumer electronics, can be used to minimize the separation between adjacent chip “tiles” and resultant irregularities in the tiled-surface smoothness. A tiled implementation may also include a thin rugged flexible protective film that separates the sensor chips from the outside world. FIG. 3 illustrates the positioning and networking of pressure sensing and processing “mini-array” chips 1400 in larger contiguous structures 1410.

With the perfection of a translucent pressure-sensor array, it further becomes possible for translucent pressure-sensor arrays to be laid atop aligned visual displays such as LCDs, florescent, plasma, CRTs, etc. as was discussed above for null/contact touch-pads. The displays can be used to label areas of the sensor array, illustrate gradients, etc. Note that in the “tile chip” implementation, monochrome or color display areas may indeed be built into each chip.

Returning now to the concept of a pressure-sensor array touch-pad large enough for hand-operation: examples of hand contact that may be recognized, example methods for how these may be translated into control parameters, and examples of how these all may be used are now described. In the below the hand is used throughout as an example, but it is understood that the foot or even other body regions, animal regions, objects, or physical phenomena can replace the role of the hand in these illustrative examples.

FIG. 4 illustrates the pressure profiles for a number of example hand contacts with a pressure-sensor array. In the case 1500 of a finger's end, pressure on the touch-pad pressure-sensor array can be limited to the finger tip, resulting in a spatial pressure distribution profile 1501; this shape does not change much as a function of pressure. Alternatively, the finger can contact the pad with its flat region, resulting in light pressure profiles 1502 which are smaller in size than heavier pressure profiles 1503. In the case 1504 where the entire finger touches the pad, a three segment pattern (1504 a, 1504 b, 1504 c) will result under many conditions; under light pressure a two segment pattern (1504 b or 1504 c missing) could result. In all but the lightest pressures the thumb makes a somewhat discernible shape 1505 as do the wrist 1506, cuff 1507, and palm 1508; at light pressures these patterns thin and can also break into disconnected regions. Whole hand patterns such as the fist 1511 and flat hand 1512 have more complex shapes. In the case of the fist 1511, a degree of curl can be discerned from the relative geometry and separation of subregions (here depicted, as an example, as 1511 a, 1511 b, and 1511 c). In the case of the whole flat hand 1512, there can be two or more subregions which may be in fact joined (as within 1512 a) and/or disconnected (as an example, as 1512 a and 1512 b are); the whole hand also affords individual measurement of separation “angles” among the digits and thumb (1513 a, 1513 b, 1513 c, 1513 d) which can easily be varied by the user.

Relatively simple pattern recognition software can be used to discern these and other hand contact patterns which will be termed “postures.” The pattern recognition working together with simple image processing may, further, derive a very large number of independent control parameters which are easily manipulated by the operating user. In many cases it may be advantageous to train a system to the particulars of a specific person's hand(s) and/or specific postures. In other situations the system may be designed to be fully adaptive and adjust to a person's hand automatically. In practice, for the widest range of control and accuracy, both training and ongoing adaptation may be useful. Further, the recognized postures described thus far may be combined in sequence with specific dynamic variations among them (such as a finger flick, double-tap, etc.) and as such may be also recognized and thus treated as an additional type of recognized pattern; such sequential dynamics among postures will be termed “gestures.”

The admission of gestures further allows for the derivation of additional patterns such as the degree or rate of variation within one or more of the gesture dynamics. Finally, the recognized existence and/or derived parameters from postures and gestures may be assigned to specific outgoing control signal formats and ranges. Any training information and/or control signal assignment information may be stored and recalled for one or more players via stored program control.

For each recognized pattern, the amount of information that can be derived as parameters is in general very high. For the human hand or foot, there are, typically, artifacts such as shape variation due to elastic tissue deformation that permit recovery of up to all six degrees of freedom allowed in an object's orientation in 3-dimensional space.

FIG. 5 illustrates how six degrees of freedom can be recovered from the contact of a single finger. In the drawing, the finger 1600 makes contact with the touch-pad 1601 with its end segment at a point on the touch-pad surface determined by coordinates 1611 and 1612 (these would be, for example, left/right for 1611 and forward/backward for 1612). Fixing this point of contact, the finger 1600 is also capable of rotational twisting along its length 1613 as well as rocking back and forth 1614. The entire finger can also be pivoted with motion 1615 about the contact point defined by coordinates 1611 and 1612. These are all clearly independently controlled actions, and yet it is still possible in any configuration of these thus far five degrees of freedom, to vary the overall pressure 1616 applied to the contact point. Simple practice, if it is even needed, allows the latter overall pressure 1616 to be independently fixed or varied by the human operator as other parameters are adjusted.

In general other and more complex hand contacts, such as use of two fingers, the whole hand, etc. forfeit some of these example degrees of freedom but often introduce others. For example, in the quite constrained case of a whole hand posture, the fingers and thumb can exert pressure independently (5 parameters), the finger and thumb separation angles can be varied (4 parameters), the finger ends 1504 a can exert pressure independently from the middle 1504 b and inner 1504 c segments (4 parameters), the palm can independently vary its applied pressure (1 parameter) while independently tilting/rocking in two directions (2 parameters) and the thumb can curl (1 parameter), yielding 17 instantaneously and simultaneously measurable parameters which are independently adjustable per hand. Complex contact postures may also be viewed as, or decomposed into, component sub-postures (for example here, as flat-finger contact, palm contact, and thumb contact) which would then derive parameters from each posture independently. For such complex contact postures, recognition as a larger compound posture which may then be decomposed allows for the opportunity to decouple and/or renormalize the parameter extraction in recognition of the special affairs associated with and constraints imposed by specific complex contact postures.

It is noted that the derived parameters may be pre-processed for specific uses. One example of this would be the quantization of a parameter into two or more discrete steps; these could for example be sequentially interpreted as sequential notes of a scale or melody. Another example would be that of warping a parameter range as measured to one with a more musically expressive layout.

Next examples of the rich metaphorical aspects of interacting with the pressure-sensor array touch-pad are illustrated. In many cases there may be one or more natural geometric metaphor(s) applicable, such as associating left-right position, left-right twisting, or left-right rotation with stereo panning, or in associating overall pressure with volume or spectral complexity. In more abstract cases, there may be pairs of parameters that go together—here, for example with a finger end, it may be natural to associate one parameter pair with (left/right and forward/backward) contact position and another parameter pair with (left/right and forward/backward) twisting/rocking. In this latter example there is available potential added structure in the metaphor by viewing the twisting/rocking plane as being superimposed over the position plane. The superposition aspect of the metaphor can be viewed as an index, or as an input-plane/output-plane distinction for a two-input/two-output transformation, or as two separate processes which may be caused to converge or morph according to additional overall pressure, or in conjunction with a dihedral angle of intersection between two independent processes, etc.

Next, examples of the rich syntactical aspects of interacting with the pressure-sensor array touch-pad are illustrated. Some instruments have particular hand postures naturally associated with their playing. It is natural then to recognize these classical hand-contact postures and derive control parameters that match and/or transcend how a classical player would use these hand positions to evoke and control sound from the instrument. Further, some postures could be recognized either in isolation or in gestural-context as being ones associated with (or assigned to) percussion effects while remaining postures may be associated with accompanying melodies or sound textures.

As an additional syntactic aspect, specific hand postures and/or gestures may be mapped to specific selected assignments of control signals in ways affiliated with specific purposes. For example, finger ends may be used for one collection of sound synthesis parameters, thumb for a second potentially partially overlapping collection of sound synthesis parameters, flat fingers for a third partially-overlapping collection, wrist for a fourth, and cuff for a fifth, and fist for a sixth. In this case it may be natural to move the hand through certain connected sequences of motions; for example: little finger end, still in contact, dropping to flat-finger contact, then dropping to either palm directly or first to cuff and then to palm, then moving to wrist, all never breaking contact with the touch-pad. Such permissible sequences of postures that can be executed sequentially without breaking contact with the touch-pad will be termed “continuous grammars.”

Under these circumstances it is useful to set up parameter assignments, and potentially associated context-sensitive parameter renormalizations, that work in the context of selected (or all available) continuous grammars. For example, as the hand contact evolves as being recognized as one posture and then another, parameters may be smoothly handed-over in interpretation from one posture to another without abrupt changes, while abandoned parameters either hold their last value or return to a default value (instantly or via a controlled envelope).

Now a number of example applications of the pressure-sensor array touch-pad are provided. It is known to be possible and valuable to use the aforementioned pressure-sensor array touch-pad, implicitly containing its associated data acquisition, processing, and assignment elements, for many, many applications such as general machine control and computer workstation control. One example of machine control is in robotics: here a finger might be used to control a hazardous material robot hand as follows:

left/right position: left/right hand position

in/out position: in/out hand position

in/out rock: up/down hand position

rotation: hand grip approach angle

overall pressure: grip strength

left/right twist: gesture to lock or release current grip from pressure control.

A computer workstation example may involve a graphical Computer-Aided Design application currently requiring intensive mouse manipulation of parameters one or two at a time:

left/right position: left/right position of a selected symbol in a 2-D CAD drawing

in/out position: up/down position of a selected symbol in 2-D CAD drawing

left/right twist: symbol selection—left/right motion through 2-D palette

in/out rock: symbol selection—up/down motion through 2-D palette

rotation: rotation of selected symbol in the drawing

overall pressure: sizing by steps

tap of additional finger: lock selection into drawing or unlock for changes

tap of thumb: undo

palm: toggle between add new object and select existing object.

Clearly a symbol can be richly interactively selected and installed or edited in moments as opposed to tens to hundreds of seconds as is required by mouse manipulation of parameters one or two at a time and the necessary mode-changes needed to change the mouse action interpretation.

Touch-Pad Array

Touch-pad instrument elements, such as null/contact types and pressure-sensor array types described earlier, can be used in isolation or arrays to create electronic controller instruments. The touch-pad(s) may be advantageously supplemented with panel controls such as push buttons, sliders, knobs as well as impact sensors for velocity-controlled triggering of percussion or pitched note events. If one or more of the touch-pads is transparent (as in the case of a null/contact touch screen overlay) one or more video, graphics, or alphanumeric displays 2711 may be placed under a given pad or group of pads.

FIG. 6 illustrates examples of single 2710, double 2720, and quadruple 2730 touch-pad instruments with pads of various sizes. A single touch-pad could serve as the central element of such an instrument, potentially supplemented with panel controls such as push buttons 2714, sliders 2715, knobs 2716 as well as impact sensors. In FIG. 6, a transparent pad superimposed over a video, graphics, or one or more alphanumeric displays is assumed, and specifically shown is a case of underlay graphics cues being displayed for the player. Two large sensors can be put side by side to serve as a general purpose left-hand/right-hand multi-parameter controller.

All publications and patent applications mentioned in this specification are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. The invention now being fully described, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that many changes and modifications can be made thereto without departing from its spirit or scope.

Video Cameras

FIG. 7 illustrates an example video camera 1703 linked to a computer workstation 1700 system that can be used to perform various aspects of the invention. In one implementation, as depicted in FIG. 7 the system includes a video camera 1703 to generate real-time video signals responsive to a user gesture as observed by the video camera 1703, and a processor 1701 in a computer workstation 1700 to generate control signals responsive to the real-time video signals responsive to the user gesture observed by the video camera 1703. The control signals are used to control a software application 1702 executing on the computer workstation 1700, such that at least one aspect of the software application 1702 is responsive to the user gesture observed by the video camera 1703. Video cameras and other optically-controlled sensors may also be used as control elements. Video cameras are especially interesting as controllers because of available image processing, image recognition, and image motion tracking utilities which have been developed for manufacturing inspection, medicine, and motion-video compression together with the ability to actually display a real-time image in recording or performance.

Far more valuable is the use of the spatial capture aspects of a video camera. A simple example of this would be to split the image into “sub-image cells” (i.e., half, quarters, etc. of the entire video image) using various means and again deriving average luminance and/or color information from each of the cells. For small numbers of cells this may be done with analog electronics: sync detectors trigger one-shots that gate specific integrate/hold circuits for specific intervals of horizontal scan lines in specific vertical regions of the image. Digital methods may also be used, for example: reading the image into a frame buffer which is then analyzed in the retrace interval for the next frame, doing running calculations on the video signal as the fields are scanned, etc. Digital methods will typically scale to higher resolutions and more complex functionalities and thus in many cases may be preferred. Digital methods may be implemented with special dedicated hardware or standard personal computers fitted with standard video capture and MIDI interface cards, etc. Such personal computer implementations may implement a number of image processing, parameter derivation, and control signal assignments in a flow virtually identical to that of FIG. 2. These functions may be done in software run on the personal computer or in part or in whole by dedicated hardware boards or peripherals (for functions such as video acquisition, pattern recognition, etc.).

With the ability to process images at higher resolutions and in more complex ways, it becomes possible to use video in increasingly valuable ways as an instrument element. By correlating higher resolution image area measurements, it becomes possible to recognize patterns and shapes and derive parameters from them in real-time. In fact, the same image processing software structures used in pressure-sensor array touch-pads, or even exact portions of software itself, may also be used to process video images in real-time, replacing pressure pixel information with, for example, luminance pixel information. These algorithms may be enhanced further by exploiting available color information as well. The shapes recognized and some of the parameters derived from them are likely to have a somewhat different quality: the 3D-projected-to-2D nature of camera images, gradients of luminance created by shadows and reflections, as well as the types and (potentially) ranges of shapes to be recognized typically differ significantly from those discussed in the pressure-sensor array touch-pad context. Nevertheless, similar software structures may be used to great value. Specific types of shapes and patterns—such as written characters, particular gradients in brightness or color, separation distances between bars and/or bar widths—may be particularly useful variations from those shapes and patterns discussed in the context of pressure-sensor array touch-pads.

Next to be discussed are examples of how video cameras supplemented with these capabilities may be used to trigger events and/or continuously control sound, light, and special effects.

A first example is that of recognizing the human hand posture, position, and proximity to the camera in 3-dimensional space. Simple hand orientation and posture geometry may be used to create specific control signals. In a more advanced implementation, dynamic gestures may be recognized. These two capabilities give the system, with sufficient software, the ability to recognize a few if not many verbal hand signals; with yet more enhancements, potentially including the ability to recognize the roles of two hands with respect to the human body, the recognition capabilities could include, for example, formal ASL as well as particular dance postures. The ability to recognize postures of hand, hand/arm, hand/arm/body, etc. allows hands, dance, “conducting” (not necessarily restricted to formal conducting gestures), etc. to be used directly for the control of sound, lighting, and special effects.

In another class of examples, video cameras may recognize, and derive parameters from, characters and/or patterns available on a stage. Such characters and/or patterns may be brought before the camera, exposed and obfuscated from the camera; the camera may be turned towards the characters and/or patterns, etc., resulting in derived parameters and issued control signals. Stage cameras may also be used to recognize and track the location and some aspects of body orientation and posture of performers, deriving parameters and issuing control signals from these as well.

In each of the above examples, it is noted that the use of two or more cameras, either in stereoscopic layout similar to those of human eyes or in an orthogonal layout (i.e., forward facing camera and overhead camera covering the same 3-dimensional region), may be used to resolve 3D-to-2D projection singularities in the pattern and shape recognition and processing.

As a third class of example, recent developments have allowed for the recognition of human facial expressions from video images and even degrees of lip reading. These recognition and parameter derivation methods may also be adapted in the invention to provide the ability for the human face to be used as a controller for sound, lighting, and special effects. Simplified systems can be created to recognized and parameterize a few selected expressions or to recognize and measure geometric variations in specific areas of the face.

REFERENCES CITED

The following references are cited in this patent application using the format of the first one or two authors last name(s) within square brackets “[ ]”, multiple references within a pair of square brackets separated by semicolons “;”

-   [Ronse] Ronse, Christian and Devijver, Pierre A., Connected     Components in Binary Images: the Detection Problem, John Wiley &     Sons Inc. New York, 1984; -   [Viberg] Viberg, Mats, Subspace Fitting Concepts in Sensor Array     Processing, Linkoping Studies in Science and Technology.     Dissertations No. 27 Linkoping, Sweden 1989; -   [Shapiro] Shapiro, Larry S, Affine Analysis of Image Sequences,     Cambridge University Press, 1995; -   [Hara] Hara, Yoshiko “Matsushita demos multilayer MPEG-4     compression”, Electronic Engineering Times, Apr. 19, 1999. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system configured to provide a user interface for a computing device, the system comprising: a video camera configured to generate a real-time video signal responsive to an input indicative of a user gesture in free space as observed by the video camera; and a processor configured to generate one or more control signals based on processing at least gradients of luminance pixel information of the real-time video signal so as to recognize, from the input, the user gesture in free space from a plurality of gestures, the control signals to control a software application configured to be executed on the computing device; wherein at least one aspect of the desktop software application is responsive to the input indicative of the user gesture as observed by the video camera; and, wherein the processor is configured to recognize one or more patterns of shapes from the gradients of the luminance pixel information to recognize the user gesture from the plurality of the gestures.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user gesture comprises movement of the user's hand.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the user gesture comprises a posture of the user's hand.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user gesture comprises movement of the user's body.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the user gesture comprises movement of an object.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the software application is a graphics design software application.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the video camera generates real-time video signals responsive to a user's facial expressions as observed by the video camera.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is configured to recognize a position of the user with respect to the video camera, and the processor is configured to generate control signals in response to the user gesture and the user position.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the user gesture comprises a posture of the user's hand.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the video camera utilizes image motion tracking and motion video compression to generate real-time free space video signals responsive to the user gesture in free space.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is configured to recognize the user gesture in free space, user position in free space and user proximity in free space to the video camera in the three-dimensional space, and the processor is configured to generate control signals in response to the user gesture in free space, user position in free space and user proximity in free space to the video camera.
 12. A method of providing a user interface for a computer device, the method comprising: generating real-time video signals responsive in response to an input indicative of a user gesture in free space; generating one or more control signals responsive to the real-time video signals responsive to the user gesture based on processing at least gradients of luminance pixel information of the real-time video signals to recognize the user gesture in free space from a plurality of gestures; enabling control of a software application configured to be executed on the computing device using the control signals; wherein at least one aspect of the software application is responsive to the input indicative of the user gesture; and, wherein the processing of the gradients of luminance comprises recognizing one or more patterns of shapes from the gradients of the luminance pixel information to recognize the user gesture from the plurality of gestures.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the user gesture comprises movement of the user's hand.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the user gesture comprises movement of the user's body.
 15. The method of claim 12, wherein the user gesture comprises movement of an object.
 16. The method of claim 12, wherein the software application is a graphics design software application.
 17. The method of claim 12, further comprising: generating real-time video signals responsive to a user's facial expressions.
 18. The method of claim 12, further comprising: determining a position of the user with respect to a source of the video signals, and generating control signals in response to the user gesture and the user position.
 19. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining the user gesture in free space, a user position in free space and a user proximity in free space to a source of the video signals in a three-dimensional space, and generating control signals in response to the user gesture, user position and user proximity to the source of the video signals. 